Covalent organic frameworks (COF) possess a robust and porous crystalline structure, making them an appealing candidate for energy storage. Herein, we report an exfoliated polyimide COF composite ...(P‐COF@SWCNT) prepared by an in situ condensation of anhydride and amine on the single‐walled carbon nanotubes as advanced anode for potassium‐ion batteries (PIBs). Numerous active sites exposed on the exfoliated frameworks and the various open pathways promote the highly efficient ion diffusion in the P‐COF@SWCNT while preventing irreversible dissolution in the electrolyte. During the charging/discharging process, K+ is engaged in the carbonyls of imide group and naphthalene rings through the enolization and π‐K+ effect, which is demonstrated by the DFT calculation and XPS, ex‐situ FTIR, Raman. As a result, the prepared P‐COF@SWCNT anode enables an incredibly high reversible specific capacity of 438 mA h g−1 at 0.05 A g−1 and extended stability. The structural advantage of P‐COF@SWCNT enables more insights into the design and versatility of COF as an electrode.
We prepare a polyimide covalent organic framework composite anode by effective in‐situ condensation of anhydride and amine on the surface of single‐walled carbon nanotubes. The construction of the conductive network accelerates the transport of electron. Dual electroactive sites in the framework, carbonyls and aromatic naphthalene rings, could store more potassium ions by the enolization and π‐K+ effect.
STAT3 is a transcription factor that plays central roles in various physiological processes and its deregulation results in serious diseases including cancer. The mechanisms on how STAT3 activity is ...regulated remains enigmatic. Here we identify TRIM27 as a positive regulator of II-6-induced STAT3 activation and downstream gene expression. TRIM27 localizes to retromer-positive punctate structures and serves as a critical link for recruiting gp130, JAK1, and STAT3 to and subsequent phosphorylation of STAT3 at the retromer-positive structures. Overexpression of TRIM27 promotes cancer cell growth in vitro and tumor growth in nude mice, whereas knockdown of TRIM27 has opposite effects. Deficiency of TRIM27 significantly impairs dextran sulfate sodium (DSS)-induced STAT3 activation, inflammatory cytokine expression and colitis as well as azoxymethane (AOM)/DSS-induced colitis-associated cancer in mice. These findings reveal a retromer-dependent mechanism for regulation of STAT3 activation, inflammation, and inflammation-associated cancer development.
An atom- and step-economical, efficient and eco-friendly method for constructing naphthoselenazol-2-amines through a visible-light photocatalytic multi-component reaction under aqueous phase ...conditions is reported. This visible-light-induced reaction proceeded at room temperature under exogenous photosensitizer- and additive-free, neutral and mild conditions with low-cost and abundant elemental selenium as the selenium source, ambient air as the clean oxidant and pure water as the sole solvent.
An atom- and step-economical, efficient and eco-friendly method for constructing naphthoselenazol-2-amines through a visible-light photocatalytic multi-component reaction under aqueous phase conditions is reported.
Tumor-derived extracellular vesicles (TEVs) released from various tumor cell types comprise endosome-derived exosomes and microvesicles (MVs), which originate from plasma membrane budding. TEVs ...incorporate a myriad of biomolecules such as proteins, DNAs, metabolites and microRNAs, which can be transferred from cell-to-cell. Besides their role in the disposal of biomolecules, TEVs serve to orchestrate fundamental processes of normal and malignant development, including breast cancer (BC). As such, TEVs are important constituents of the tumor microenvironment (TME) that act as communication shuttles through transduction of encapsulated molecular cargos from a parent to a recipient cell and through direct interaction with target cells. Emerging evidence suggests that TEVs support BC development and disease progression by fostering invasion, angiogenesis, pre-metastatic niche preparation, escape from immune surveillance, and induction of resistance to treatment. Although there is a long way to go in order to translate the current knowledge into actual clinical applications, TEVs represent promising candidates for diagnostic biomarkers, therapeutic carriers and targets. In the present review, we will summarize the current knowledge on TEVs in BC.
•Tumor-derived extracellular vesicles (TEVs) as diagnostic and prognostic markers in breast cancer are reviewed.•The roles of TEVs in the tumor microenvironment and the maintenance of stemness are addressed.•TEVs are potential drug carriers and therapeutic tools in breast cancer.
Our previous work showed that a consortium of three plant growth-promoting rhizobacterium (PGPR) strains (Bacillus cereus AR156, Bacillus subtilis SM21, and Serratia sp. XY21), termed as BBS for ...short, was a promising biocontrol agent. The present study investigated its effect on drought tolerance in cucumber plants. After withholding watering for 13 days, BBS-treated cucumber plants had much darker green leaves and substantially lighter wilt symptoms than control plants. Compared to the control, the BBS treatment decreased the leaf monodehydroascorbate (MDA) content and relative electrical conductivity by 40% and 15%, respectively; increased the leaf proline content and the root recovery intension by 3.45-fold and 50%, respectively; and also maintained the leaf chlorophyll content in cucumber plants under drought stress. Besides, in relation to the control, the BBS treatment significantly enhanced the superoxide dismutase (SOD) activity and mitigated the drought-triggered down-regulation of the expression of the genes cAPX, rbcL, and rbcS encoding cytosolic ascorbate peroxidase, and ribulose-1,5-bisphosphate carboxy/oxygenase (Rubisco) large and small subunits, respectively, in cucumber leaves. However, 1-aminocyclopropane-1-carboxylate (ACC) deaminase activity was undetected in none of the culture solutions of three BBS constituent strains. These results indicated that BBS conferred induced systemic tolerance to drought stress in cucumber plants, by protecting plant cells, maintaining photosynthetic efficiency and root vigor and increasing some of antioxidase activities, without involving the action of ACC deaminase to lower plant ethylene levels.
A principal goal of cancer nanomedicine is to deliver therapeutics effectively to cancer cells within solid tumors. However, there are a series of biological barriers that impede nanomedicine from ...reaching target cells. Here, we report a stimuli-responsive clustered nanoparticle to systematically overcome these multiple barriers by sequentially responding to the endogenous attributes of the tumor microenvironment. The smart polymeric clustered nanoparticle (iCluster) has an initial size of ∼100 nm, which is favorable for long blood circulation and high propensity of extravasation through tumor vascular fenestrations. Once iCluster accumulates at tumor sites, the intrinsic tumor extracellular acidity would trigger the discharge of platinum prodrug-conjugated poly(amidoamine) dendrimers (diameter ∼5 nm). Such a structural alteration greatly facilitates tumor penetration and cell internalization of the therapeutics. The internalized dendrimer prodrugs are further reduced intracellularly to release cisplatin to kill cancer cells. The superior in vivo antitumor activities of iCluster are validated in varying intractable tumor models including poorly permeable pancreatic cancer, drug-resistant cancer, and metastatic cancer, demonstrating its versatility and broad applicability.
As a newly emerging excellent energy storage device, supercapacitors have been widely studied due to their unique advantages. Electrode material is one of the key components that determine the ...performance of a supercapacitor. Among the various electrode materials of supercapacitors, RuO
2
has attracted great attention in the scientific community due to its high theoretical energy storage capability and excellent stability. However, most RuO
2
materials suffer the problem of low specific surface area, causing a much lower actual capacitance value compared to the theoretical performance of the material. In this work, a mulberry-like RuO
2
electrode material with large specific surface area (159.4 m
2
·g
−1
) was successfully synthesized by a facial hydrothermal method. The electrochemical characterization has shown that the RuO
2
possesses a high specific capacitance of 400 F·g
−1
at a current density of 0.2 A·g
−1
and good capacitance retention rate of 84.7% after 6000 charge/discharge cycles under a current density of 10 A·g
−1
. The energy densities and power densities of the RuO
2
-AC supercapacitor vary from 25.0 to 11.7 Wh·kg
−1
and 160 to 10,560 W·kg
−1
at current density ranging from 0.2 to 10.0 A·g
−1
, respectively.
Graphic abstract
Genome editing offers promising solutions to genetic disorders by editing DNA sequences or modulating gene expression. The clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats ...(CRISPR)/associated protein 9 (CRISPR/Cas9) technology can be used to edit single or multiple genes in a wide variety of cell types and organisms in vitro and in vivo. Herein, we review the rapidly developing CRISPR/Cas9-based technologies for disease modeling and gene correction and recent progress toward Cas9/guide RNA (gRNA) delivery based on viral and nonviral vectors. We discuss the relative merits of delivering the genome editing elements in the form of DNA, mRNA, or protein, and the opportunities of combining viral delivery of a transgene encoding Cas9 with nonviral delivery of gRNA. We highlight the lessons learned from nonviral gene delivery in the past three decades and consider their applicability for CRISPR/Cas9 delivery. We also include a discussion of bioinformatics tools for gRNA design and chemical modifications of gRNA. Finally, we consider the extracellular and intracellular barriers to nonviral CRISPR/Cas9 delivery and propose strategies that may overcome these barriers to realize the clinical potential of CRISPR/Cas9-based genome editing.
Chronic kidney disease (CKD) patients have an increased risk of cardiovascular diseases (CVDs). The present study aimed to investigate the gut microbiota and blood trimethylamine-N-oxide ...concentration (TMAO) in Chinese CKD patients and explore the underlying explanations through the animal experiment. The median plasma TMAO level was 30.33 μmol/L in the CKD patients, which was significantly higher than the 2.08 μmol/L concentration measured in the healthy controls. Next-generation sequence revealed obvious dysbiosis of the gut microbiome in CKD patients, with reduced bacterial diversity and biased community constitutions. CKD patients had higher percentages of opportunistic pathogens from gamma-Proteobacteria and reduced percentages of beneficial microbes, such as Roseburia, Coprococcus, and Ruminococcaceae. The PICRUSt analysis demonstrated that eight genes involved in choline, betaine, L-carnitine and trimethylamine (TMA) metabolism were changed in the CKD patients. Moreover, we transferred faecal samples from CKD patients and healthy controls into antibiotic-treated C57BL/6 mice and found that the mice that received gut microbes from the CKD patients had significantly higher plasma TMAO levels and different composition of gut microbiota than did the comparative mouse group. Our present study demonstrated that CKD patients had increased plasma TMAO levels due to contributions from both impaired renal functions and dysbiosis of the gut microbiota.
Recent advances in CRISPR present attractive genome‐editing toolsets for therapeutic strategies at the genetic level. Here, a liposome‐coated mesoporous silica nanoparticle (lipoMSN) is reported as ...an effective CRISPR delivery system for multiplex gene‐editing in the liver. The MSN provides efficient loading of Cas9 plasmid as well as Cas9 protein/guide RNA ribonucleoprotein complex (RNP), while liposome‐coating offers improved serum stability and enhanced cell uptake. Hypothesizing that loss‐of‐function mutation in the lipid‐metabolism‐related genes pcsk9, apoc3, and angptl3 would improve cardiovascular health by lowering blood cholesterol and triglycerides, the lipoMSN is used to deliver a combination of RNPs targeting these genes. When targeting a single gene, the lipoMSN achieved a 54% gene‐editing efficiency, besting the state‐of‐art Lipofectamine CRISPRMax. For multiplexing, lipoMSN maintained significant gene‐editing at each gene target despite reduced dosage of target‐specific RNP. By delivering combinations of targeting RNPs in the same nanoparticle, synergistic effects on lipid metabolism are observed in vitro and vivo. These effects, such as a 50% decrease in serum cholesterol after 4 weeks of post‐treatment with lipoMSN carrying both pcsk9 and angptl3‐targeted RNPs, could not be reached with a single gene‐editing approach. Taken together, this lipoMSN represents a versatile platform for the development of efficient, combinatorial gene‐editing therapeutics.
A liposome‐coated mesoporous silica nanoparticle enables multiplex gene editing to understand potential therapeutic targets in liver lipid metabolism. Using this novel nonviral platform to deliver CRISPR/Cas9 ribonucleoprotein, gene editing is demonstrated at three potential therapeutic targets (pcsk9, apoc3, angptl3) for cardioprotection in vitro and in vivo.
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